Medicare Privatisation Threatens Privacy and Services

Posted by Anonymous4pc on February 09, 2016

The Government’s secret plans to privatise Medicare are putting the highly sensitive medical and financial records of all Australians into private hands.

Media reports suggesting such a radical change will be confirmed in Treasurer Scott Morrison’s first Budget have added to the alarm at the Government’s push to allow private companies to profit from essential public services, including sending sensitive work overseas.

Medicare absolutely needs to stay in public hands. Privatising Medicare would mean handing control of a system that we all rely on to a private company that would not be answerable to the Australian public.

The privacy of every Australian's medical records is at stake here, but so is the integrity of Medicare and other services that all Australians rely on. We need these services to be run for the benefit of the people who need them, not for profits to line the pockets of private interests. Australians are right to be suspicious of privatising Medicare and other Government payments, when privatisation always seems to result in increased costs for worse services.